Of Course I'll Cover For You
by Timemidae
Summary: Aliens of London: It's Tosh's day off, but she just can't say no to Owen. How Tosh ended up at Albion Hospital, autopsied a space pig, and briefly met the strangest and most wonderful man in the universe.


_Hi everybody! My friend (doctorwhofreek) recently told me about Naoko Mori's appearance in Aliens of London and how they referenced/explained it later on Torchwood and I was mind blown. I thought about it all day. I love it when little details link up like that. Also, I realized that Tosh __**met the Doctor, **__and I thought that was pretty significant. Both doctorwhofreek and I wrote stories about this, I'm not sure if hers is up yet, but if it is you should go check it out. .net/u/3500225/_

_I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who._

It was her day off; Tosh wanted to make that perfectly clear.

She'd awoken at seven, not five-thirty as she did on the days she had to work, and made herself a cup of tea, real Japanese tea. She turned on the radio (Tosh never watched TV in the morning, even if it was the news; it just felt wrong.) and sat back with her steaming cup to absorb the news of the day. It was eight o'clock and Tosh was clearing up, carefully washing her tea things and putting them away, when an ugly whoop-whoop sound burst from the radio followed by a reporters frantic voice, "It appears that an aircraft of some kind has crashed in downtown London. Eyewitnesses report it collided with Big Ben and landed in the Thames. There are unconfirmed rumors coming in that the ship is not of terrestrial origin."

Tosh froze, turned the tap off, and listened intently as the man's disembodied voice grew more and more panicked. The situation sounded fairly legitimate. Tosh sighed; she really should go into the Hub, they would probably need her.

But no, Jack had insisted that she take a day off, had told her that he and Owen would be fine without her, had told her she deserved it. And she did deserve it! She'd been looking forward to that day all week. Decision made, Tosh switched off her radio.

She was curled up on the sofa with a book when the phone rang. Tosh glanced at the caller ID and was instantly embarrassed by the thrill that went up her spine when she saw who was calling. There was his number, and right below it, his name, Harper, O.

"Hello," she said brightly. He didn't even bother with a greeting. "I feel like shit, would you mind covering for me today?" "Sure, of course", stupid, thought Tosh, why had she said that? It was her day off! "What do you need me to do?" Why was she still talking?

"That thing that crashed into Big Ben, apparently they've found a body. You just need to go down and look at it; it's probably just some dumb ass hang glider or something. Just poke around a little, look concerned, and stick it with some needles; that's what I always do anyways. If it is anything interesting, try to get it sent back to the Hub; I'll look at it later."

"Okay," said Tosh, not at all sure that it would be as easy as Owen suggested. Over the phone she could hear Owen moving around his flat, the shhh of water from a faucet, curses as he struggled with a childproof cap, faint gluggs as he downed the water and the aspirin. "Feel better!" Tosh called, but she heard a 'click" mid-phrase; Owen had hung up on her.

Tosh sighed and went to go change into something more professional.

Ready in a matter of minutes, Toshiko Sato was nothing if not efficient. On the train, Tosh opened her laptop and set about doing what she did best. She hacked onto the files of the British government and gave herself the credentials that would allow her access to the alleged aliens. Most of her bibliographic information she kept the same, but she quietly added a medical degree from Leeds University and a completed internship and residency at Cardiff Central Clinic. She then accessed the institutions in question and inconspicuously inserted herself into their records. She set her updates to automatically wipe themselves after forty-eight hours, no need to cause any lasting confusion.

When she disembarked in London, Tosh proceeded to the Albion Hospital. The place was crawling with UNIT men, standing straight at attention with their semi-automatics and their red berets. Tosh shivered, took a moment to collect herself, and walked straight up to a man who looked like he was in charge. "Good morning sir, I am Doctor Sato, representing Torchwood, could you direct me to the body?" She flashed her Torchwood ID card, holding out for a period of time she calculated would be just long enough for the officer to see it but not long enough for him to fully take it in.

Thankfully, he seemed to believe her unquestioningly. "Avery, Thompson, with me" he barked, "Right this way doctor."

Tosh held her breath; she was beginning to feel trapped, enclosed by the three UNIT officers. She grew more and more nervous as they led her through the long, disinfectant scented hallways of the hospital.

They brought her to a cold, steel autopsy room. It was very little like the autopsy pit back at the Hub. That space was open and lively, despite its purpose; this room was dim and forbidding.

"Here's the body," said the burly UNIT man called Thompson, he smiled a little bit as the pulled the refrigerated drawer open, "it's been kept here for the past ten hours, no other doctor's seen it yet."

Tosh unzipped the body bag with trembling fingers; she didn't know how to perform an autopsy; what was she doing here? She was terrified that the UNIT men would stay, would watch her and know instantly that she was not who she said she was. Thankfully though, they filed out after a few minutes. Avery and Thompson remained nearby guarding the hallway; their boss hurried back to his post outside.

Tosh breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at the body on the table. It was a pig. Tosh had not exactly been raised as a farm girl and even she knew it was a pig; there was its snout, there was its pink, bristly skin. She gently flipped it over, yes, there, protruding from its rather strange jumpsuit, was a curly little tail.

She stopped and thought for a minute; the Rift operated through both time and space, maybe this "alien" was a lost, highly evolved porcine species from the future. Pigs were already very intelligent. But, there hadn't been any large rift spikes that morning; she'd checked the data before leaving home, just to make sure.

More information was definitely needed, information that could only be found inside the pig itself. Tosh gingerly picked up a scalpel. She held it over the pig's chest and squeezed her eyes shut, preparing to plunge the blade into its thick skin. Wait, weren't there things she should do before she opened it up? Yes, definitely, there were X-rays, CAT-scans, a whole battery of noninvasive test to be done.

A few hours later, Tosh stood in the lab with all the test results strewn in front of her. She scanned them, her eyes widening in surprise. She had to call Owen.

She swiftly dialed his cell number, "Hey, you've reached Doctor Owen Harper. I'm probably pissed right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to you, maybe." "Hi Owen, I'm in London and this thing is weird. It looks like a pig and judging from what I've managed to find out from Google Images, most of its internal structures are consistent with those of an Earth porcine, but its brain is like nothing I've ever seen before. I've emailed you photos of the scans. Please, I need your help. Call me back."

Ugh, she was here as a favor to him, in way over her head, on her day off, and he didn't even bother to take her calls. If he really wasn't feeling well, he would probably be at home. Tosh didn't know Owen's home number, but she was sure she could find out. Indeed, it only took her a few minutes with her computer. After a moment of doubt, (What if this was too intrusive? What if he thought she was creepy?) she dialed the number. She got the answer machine again, but this message was different. It was Owen, but he sounded…happy? "Hi! You've reached Owen," a woman's voice joined his, giggling, "and Katie. We're not in right now, so leave a message. And have a great day!"

Tosh snapped her phone shut. Enough, she had an alien pig to attempt to autopsy.

She walked back to the table. Just then, a military rap sounded at the door. Some high-ranking officials came into the room, looking expectantly at Tosh. She hid her panic and brandished her scans; if Owen wasn't going to help her, she would just have to handle this herself. "As you can see, it resembles a pig, but its brain is wired up like nothing I've seen before," she said. The men seemed satisfied.

After they left, Tosh drew some more blood samples (she'd gotten quite adept at it over the course of the day) and slid the pig back into its refrigerated compartment.

She spent the evening reviewing the case file she'd been given, trying to figure out where the creature could have come from. Actually, if Tosh was honest with herself, she wasn't really concentrating on the file, she was just prolonging the moment when she would actually have to autopsy the poor thing. She was still staring at the file when she heard loud bangs from behind her, from the drawer where she'd stowed the creature. She slowly approached the drawer, her breath caught in her throat. The creature, with strength Tosh had not expected from the Tubby animal, also with force she had not expected from a corpse, shoved the door open and caught Tosh a blow to the head. She fell back, and it ran, or rather waddled, away.

Moments later, Tosh saw a man's face looming concernedly in front of her. It was kindly, but rather severe; with a short buzz cut and a strong nose. "Hi," he said, "I'm the Doctor."

Oh good, thought Tosh, because I'm certainly not.

_Ok, here's where I'm going to end this. If you want to know what happens next you should watch Aliens of London and its following episode, World War Three. _

_I hope you enjoyed this story. Please review; reviews are like happy beams of sunshine. _


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